so what i am doing is responding to their request, please give us a choice, give us a voice to guide alaska into the future. so this is a tough call, absolutely, it's not been done since john thurmon in 1954. >> right. >> but what i'm doing here, what i'm doing is trying to respond to the people of the state of alaska. >> what you're doing also is raising the anger of a lot of republicans, senator. karl rove says this one is, quote, sad and sorry. jim demeant says you've put your only personal interests ahead of everything else. and they're proposing to strip you of your leadership role on the energy committee. how do you respond to their words and their actions. >> what i am doing is i am putting my state, the state of alaska before my party. and in today's political world, that's practically unheard of. people can't believe that i would do this, that i would make this effort, make this push, why don't i just fade quietly into the sunset, as you say? i'm doing it because the people of alaska have asked me to do so. i'm putting everything on the line to do it. >> let me ask you to lo